Page 39 of Flame and Sparrow

With one final glance at the rising sun and mortal sky, I turned and stepped into the river of fire.

Chapter12

I sank.

And sank, and sank, and sank through strangely thick and warm water, bracing myself for an impact with the riverbed that never came.

My downward fall eventually slowed until I was merely floating.

I fell into light rather than the dark depths I’d anticipated—a fiery orange light so bright I could see it even though my eyes were tightly shut. The warmth around me grew to the point of sweltering, and I had the strange sensation I was sweating in the water, my skin growing uncomfortably slick and slimy.

As the suffocating heat pressed in, I gasped, sucking in not water, not air, but something in between that made my chest feel unbearably heavy. I started sinking again with the new weight, falling more swiftly this time until my feet finally hit solid ground.

I managed a normal breath. The water around me receded. A sudden, violent chill overcame me as the river I’d fallen through slipped away, and as I shivered, I couldn’t help dropping to my knees, landing upon what felt like a beach of soft sand.

I steadied my pulse and opened my eyes.

Slowly, I staggered back to my feet, my mouth falling open at the sight awaiting me.

Ever since I was a child, I’d heard tales of the heavens where gods dwelled. Of mountains made of solid gold, roads paved with the same substance, of streams that babbled soft songs in strange languages and skies swept full of colors no mortal could properly name.

The tales really did no justice to the realm stretching before me now.

The air quite literallysparkled, bits of some sort of starlight-colored substance flittering down, coating the ground—and me—and making it all shimmer. The ground beyond my sandy beach was covered in rolling waves of blueish-green grass that looked so soft, so lush, I nearly sighed just at the thought of touching it. And the sky…pale lavender, I thought at first, but it kept changing before my eyes, dancing between shades of purple and blue until I gave up trying to decide on what color to call it.

I wanted to stare at it all forever, yet I felt unworthy of the beauty, smaller and more insignificant the longer I took it in.

I wasn’t certain of where I was, but I suspected it was somewhere in the divine realm of Nerithyl—also known as the middle-heavens—the place in the universe where the Marr reigned most supreme. And if this was where the middle-gods dwelled, then what did the realm above it look like? I couldn’t fathom the heavens the upper-gods must have lived in.

Giving my head a little shake, I saw to my clothes, expecting them to be damp and covered in sand. They were neither. The falling stardust, too, did not collect on my clothing or skin; instead, it sank into my body, melting as snow did—though it did seem to be creating a faint silver haze all around me.

I was alone, which seemed odd. Then again, what had I been expecting? A welcome party? It wasn’t as though the gods were known for their hospitality.

I walked a short distance before I paused and decided to wait, somewhat awkwardly, while taking in more of my surroundings. I now stood upon the crest of a hill covered in the lush blue-green grass, and itwasas soft as it looked. I plopped down into a particularly thick tuft of it. The air seemed to plop down with me, settling like a weighted blanket over my shoulders, and I had to fight the urge to curl up and take a nap.

Sweeping out from the base of the hill were countless paths leading in countless directions. I followed them with my eyes, one after the other, sketching the lines and destinations in a mental map. One led to a forest with trees that appeared to be made of colored glass. Another to a lake with impossibly blue water, and still another reached toward hills of silver-white flowers in the distance…

It would have taken a thick book full of detailed diagrams to chart them all. As far as I knew, no elf had laid eyes upon this realm since the Fall; what would they say back home if I mapped it all out and showed them such a thing? It wasn’t why I’d come here, but the idea still excited me.

The grandest of the paths I saw—a winding walkway lined by lanterns flickering with bluish-white flames—stretched toward a walled area so large I was certain an entire city must have been contained within it. I searched my mind, trying to recall any mentions of such a city in Zara’s books or any others I’d read, but I couldn’t think of any.

Nevertheless, it seemed like the centerpiece of this place. A logical starting point. And if the God of Fire could not be bothered to greet me, I decided, hopping back to my feet, then I could manage a self-guided tour well enough—and I could take better mental notes without anyone distracting me, anyway.

The grand path seemed much longer once I was on it. No stardust fell upon it, and so it seemed oddly dark beyond the places where the lantern light fell, the shadows looming like beasts just waiting for me to stumble and fall fully into their darkness.

I finally reached the towering walls. There was a gate of iron and gold at the path’s end with a somewhat familiar emblem in its center—that of a raven-like bird surrounded by thorns. It was the symbol of one of the Moraki...the upper-god of the Shade, in this case.

I knew there were three different courts of the Marr—one beneath each of the three Moraki—and I knew that the Fire God belonged to the Shade Court. Would I encounter other gods beyond this gate? Did all of the courts have their own separate homes within this same realm?

The gate was cracked open just wide enough for me to slip through, as though someone inside had been expecting me.

“I suppose leaving the gate unlocked counts as hospitality,” I mumbled to myself. Either way, my curiosity was officially piqued, so I let myself in.

Within the walls, I found not a city, but a garden. Or perhapsjunglewould be the better word, as it seemed to grow wild without any real structure—thick vines hung from the trees and wrapped around nearly every other solid structure. Flowers of more colors and species than I could readily count bloomed everywhere I looked, several of the blossoms bigger than my head. I doubted any gardening tools had ever been used on the foliage here.

An attempt at a path had been made by someone, however; flat discs of sparkling stone wound a narrow trail between the spidery, gnarled tree trunks. I followed these stepping stones until I heard a peal of soft laughter that stopped me in my tracks.

I kept perfectly still, listening and inhaling deep lungfuls of the warm, thick air. I heard and scented plenty of things within that air, but few I could confidently name.

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